The Boca Raton Fire Department made a significant upgrade after Hurricane Irma.
During last year’s hurricane, the Boca Emergency Operations Center had trouble getting accurate wind speeds. The fire department spend almost $40,000 on a weather monitoring system to help.
“We were hunting and trying to find stuff all over the internet where we could find accurate wind speeds, and it was very difficult,” said Chief Thomas Wood.
All eight stations have a weather monitor that gives real-time information that is fed back to one central location to read the data.
“Wind speed, direction, the wind gust sustained for an hour,” Deputy Chief David Woodside said as he showed how the information is accessed online.
Woodside said they were able to see wind speeds during Tropical Storm Gordon and they determined the sustained wind speed was 46 mph.
Wood said they would be able to instantly know when they need to keep first responders off the streets.
“We want to make sure we are making the right call at the right time,” Wood added.
The system is being installed at the EOC building, and station addresses and city info will be added to the website.